Transnational Programs

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Georgetown Law offers one of the largest transnational law programs in the world. With an ideal location and a multi-building campus that includes a new international and comparative law library, Georgetown Law is a leader in global legal education.

Georgetown is committed to preparing all of its students for a legal career in this increasingly globalized society. The array of course and seminar offerings at the Law Center dealing with transnational, international, and comparative law in many forms is the most comprehensive in the nation. The distinguished full-time faculty at Georgetown is joined by visiting scholars from around the world and by a wide array of Washington D.C. practitioners in the public and private sectors.

Georgetown offers clinics, law journals, internships and study abroad programs that provide students the opportunity to focus on international, comparative and transnational law. Law Center classes and activities are enhanced by students who come here from more than 70 countries and from every corner of the globe.

Located in the heart of the nation's capital, Georgetown Law has created an unparalleled environment for transnational education and scholarship.

The Global Law Scholars Program prepares students for transnational practice in which they regularly encounter problems that involve more than one legal system. The aim is to combine language skills and cultural familiarity with rigorous and directed legal training so that the Scholars are ready to practice in the global legal environment of the 21st century. Approximately 15–20 Scholars are selected each year.

The nationally recognized International Internship Program provides Georgetown Law students with the opportunity to obtain internships with organizations all over the world, in both the private and public sectors. Each year, approximately 75 Georgetown students intern abroad with over 60 different organizations — law firms, government bodies, non-governmental organizations and corporate in-house legal departments located in over 35 countries covering six continents.

Georgetown Law offers an extraordinary selection of courses and seminars dealing with transnational, international, and comparative law. For detailed information on current and upcoming course offerings, consult the curriculum guide, or the course cluster pages below.

Three of Georgetown's renowned clinics focus on international issues: the Center for Applied Legal Studies, the International Women's Human Rights Clinic, and the Harrison Institute For Public Law. The Center for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) represents refugees seeking political asylum in the United States because of threatened persecution in their home countries. Students in CALS assume primary responsibility for the representation of these refugees, whose requests for asylum already have been rejected by the U.S. government. The International Women's Human Rights Clinic (IWHRC) seeks to promote women's human rights throughout the world. In the IWHRC clinical program, J.D. students work with United Nations organizations and nongovernmental organizations in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East on research for United Nations reports, test cases advancing women's rights, and proposed national legislation to further those rights. The Harrison Institute For Public Law works with legislators, administrators, and nonprofit associations from all around the country. The clinic develops policy proposals and analyzes the role of the non-profit sector and state/local government within the federal system. The Institute works on several projects including democracy and trade (helping state governments, environmental and consumer organizations cope with the domestic-law impact of WTO agreements, NAFTA and investment treaties.)

The semester abroad program allows students to study for a semester at the ground-breaking Center for Transnational Legal Studies (CTLS) in London or one of several world-class institutions in Argentina, Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea and Spain.

CTLS is a unique partnership, set in the heart of legal London, in which scholars and students from over 20 countries explore cross-border issues in classes where there is no 'majority' nationality, and each perspective is informed by all others. Students spend a semester with their global counterparts in courses taught by distinguished faculty from both common law and civil law traditions. Gaining knowledge, skills, and a global network of colleagues, CTLS students are uniquely prepared for legal practice in the 21st century.

Students may also apply, on an "ad hoc" basis, to spend a semester enrolled directly in an unrelated overseas law program.

Many J.D. students choose to participate in the Law Center's intensive and academically rigorous London Summer Program. Courses have a transnational perspective and are taught by faculty drawn from the Law Center, Kings College London, Free University of Berlin, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and other partner schools of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies. The program includes visits to the Royal Courts of Justice and the Inns of Court.

Georgetown Law also has an agreement with Institut d'Études Politiques (Sciences Po) that allows seven third year students the opportunity to participate in a year-long global economic law degree program. The program awards a Master's in Economic Law, Global Studies Specialization.